MANILA, Philippines — The waste-filled containers from Australia reportedly dumped in the Philippines will be shipped back, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said.
“O, by the way, the garbage from Australia, that’s going back too. No, I don’t give a flying f••k that it is used in making cement,” the foreign affairs chief said over Twitter on Monday.
“If that is so, cement makers should formally import the ingredient so it goes nowhere but to their plants,” he added.
O, by the way, the garbage from Australia, that's going back too. No, I don't give a flying f••k that it is used in making cement. If that is so cement makers should formally import the ingredient so it goes nowhere but to their plants.
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) June 10, 2019
Locsin’s remarks came more than a week after the tons of waste from Canada were shipped back six years after it was illegally dumped in the Philippines.
READ: Never again: Trash returned to Canada after 6 years in the Philippines
According to a GMA News report, several containers from Australia were put on hold at the Mindanao Container Terminal in Misamis Oriental.
The Palace has tagged the dumping of garbage from Australia as “offensive.”
“It will be offensive to this government to be a recipient of trash or ‘basura.’ We are offended by that. We will not allow it. We’ll send them back,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo earlier said. (Editor: Julie Espinosa)